Expectations just make sad and lazy. I think a common thing that I’ve read is that you should replace your ‘shoulds’ with you ‘get to’ but honestly… I don’t think that’s enough. Instead of saying I should go to the gym you could say I get to go to the gym. And that makes it somewhat easier or something.

Expectation just makes me not want to do it. I think part of the reason of expectations is that… it kinda of takes away your power and decision making for me. I value freedom over pretty much everything else. Like… to the point where I do stupid shit when expectations and my personal interests are aligned. Like… without expectations I would’ve done something for free… but when other people / myself expect that I do something… it makes me not want to do it.

Even when I enjoy the process… whenever it’s to be expected I don’t feel like doing it. At this point I think I’ve overcome the external expectation factor. Like… if other people expect me to do stuff I generally just give it a weight of 0. Their expectations generally mean nothing to me. But overcoming my own personal expectations.. that’s still hella hard.

For me it’s almost always down to if I want it or not. Something that I’ve been trying that’s been working out for me is framing the expectation as something I want to do. It’s expected that I go to yoga or the gym. But really. I want to go to yoga cause it helps me calm my mind and restore my body. I want the calmness. It’s not I get to go to yoga. It’s I want to go to yoga. And ultimately… what you want is what drives you to take action.

At this point I’m fully - well almost fully on the you’re solely responsible for yourself and even the universe. Whatever you really want will come true belief system. I guess I’ve been americanized. So… just work towards what you want and ignore expectations. Ultimately… you’ll take action to accomplish what you wanna do.

tl - dr - don’t set expectations from yourself. reject expectations for others. and do what you want. you’ll want something good for yourself